


Four Seasons

by FloraTheWriter



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bittersweet Ending, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-22 11:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22715029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloraTheWriter/pseuds/FloraTheWriter
Summary: They met.They fell in love.And with the changing of seasons, their love changed too.
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Lee Felix
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	Four Seasons

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the Valentine's collab hosted by Staytist CC 💗  
> Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Please remember to give yourself lots of love 💗

* * *

It started in spring. The blanket of white had begun to recede, giving way to the vibrant colors and sweet fragrances of the season of rebirth. Students began to shed their thick overcoats and padded jackets, subdued colors now a thing of the past. The once-frozen ground gave way to unfurling vines of green and bursts of blossoms, tiny critters and birds reclaiming their territory, flying from tree to tree, singing of revival and beauty and love.

The sky was a crystal blue, and gentle rays of sun shone upon the students slowly filling the college grounds. With a new semester, their spirits rose, good humor filling the air. Soccer games took place between classes, and the sound of skateboard wheels scratching against the concrete could be heard over the excited chatter of freshmen who were yet to learn of the hardships they would soon be facing.

Preoccupied with the anticipation of a new beginning, a new city, a new home, new friends and the beginning of adulthood, Felix had settled into a seat in his first ever lecture. 

Like the ton of assignment deadlines he was about to be given, Hyunjin caught him unawares.

“I’m sorry, were you talking to me?”

Felix turned away from one of his classmates and noticed for the first time the strikingly beautiful blonde boy seated on his right. He took a second to compose himself before shaking his head. “No?” He tried to recall the last five minutes of his conversation with his classmate and whether anything he’d said could have been mistakenly addressed to the blonde.

“Well then,” the blonde grinned, plush lips forming a smile, “please begin.”

Felix’s laugh boomed across the lecture theatre, causing several heads to turn in his direction, but he was so mesmerized with the boy beside him that he didn’t even notice.

His relationship with Hyunjin was much like a budding flower. It needed time to grow, to be nurtured and fed so that it would blossom into something beautiful.

They went on dates, conventional ones like going to watch a movie, burgers at the local diner and just hanging out in the gardens between classes, but also unconventional ones like picnics on the rooftop of the biology building before they went in for their class, and computer screen-lit dinners in the laboratories finishing assignments while munching on cheap snacks Hyunjin had snuck in under his hoodie.

Sometimes, Felix would walk daringly close to Hyunjin, allowing their fingers to brush, and after a while of fiercely debating with himself, he would grow courageous and slip his hand into Hyunjin’s. Of course, Hyunjin grew bold too, sending a jolt of electricity up Felix’s spine the first time he leaned in to place a kiss on his cheek. 

With each successful date, his kisses lingered a second or two longer on Felix’s cheek than the previous ones, long enough so that when Felix rushed into his dorm the scent of Hyunjin’s sweet cologne remained with him, soothing him to sleep more than any lullaby ever could.

One on night, with the stars twinkling above them, and an owl hooting in the distance, Felix felt a burst of confidence. Before Hyunjin could lean in, Felix stood on the tips of his toes and pressed a quick kiss onto his lips.

It was over in a blink, but the taste and soft plushness of his lips induced a giddiness that remained with Felix until the morning when they met outside their lecture theatre and did it again. That also happened to be the day they became official. 

They became _that_ couple. Look for one, and you would undoubtedly find the other because they were inseparable. Even the few hours they spent away from each other, asleep in their respective dorm rooms were agonizing.

It was the first time Felix had ever pined for someone who was in such close proximity. High school crushes now seemed insignificant – child’s play. But this… This was _real_ . This was Felix’s first relationship. And more than living away from his family, more than doing his own shopping, more than managing his own finances, his first ever relationship made him feel more of an adult than _anything_ else. 

Spring had been a season of firsts for Felix – first date, first kiss, first boyfriend, the first time he’d ever felt freedom, the first time he truly felt like an adult.

Summer drifted along with the spring wind, bringing with it a heat so sudden and so intense, it was as though the students had fallen asleep and woken up in a completely new world. 

The sun was a brilliant ball of amber in the azure sky, so bright that they daren’t look up at it, and so hot that they broke into a sweat as soon as they stepped out of their dorms. Felix’s closet became filled with flimsy pieces of clothing that served more than one purpose, intending to cool down his body, and induce heat in someone else’s. 

Picnics by the river were a natural date spot for young couples. They would sit on the riverbanks munching on sandwiches, peaches, strawberries and gulping down sugar-crammed lemonade. 

Felix would be content to sit back and watch the swans swimming down the canal, their signets obediently following. Hyunjin would lay with his head on Felix’s lap, fingers tracing the freckles on his cheeks or twirling his cherry locks between his fingers, his gaze occasionally brushing over the gossamer shirts Felix had begun to wear. And on some evenings, they would dare to discard their shirts, and submerge themselves in the cool water.

It was then that lustful glances lost their subtlety and grew into unconcealed fiery gazes, and with the moon their only witness, their chaste kisses became more heated than the summer sun. 

Fingers became brave enough to explore previously forbidden places, and Felix’s touch-starved body began to crave the caress of another, internally screaming for _more_ , _more_ , _more_. 

On weekends, after they’d done enough studying to appease their consciences, they drove out, finding secluded places, the constant buzz of their peers being replaced by the buzz of bees and chirping crickets, the sounds of nature replacing the music they’d blasted in the car.

The backseat of Hyunjin’s old blue sedan became a place of memory-making and love-making. Felix was now as familiar with the car’s leather interior as he was with every curve and crevice on Hyunjin’s body.

Sometimes, when the sun offered them a slight reprieve they would lay down in the tall green grass, each drinking in the sight of the other, mesmerized, and memorizing each other’s bodies, not just with their gazes, but with fingers and lips and tongues. 

By the end of the second semester, both boys, reluctant to part, had already sent their families weak excuses to stay on campus for the break. 

It turned out to be the best two weeks of Felix’s life. 

With Felix’s roommates all out of town, they barely left his dorm room. In fact, the only time they ever left was when they needed to pick up the food they’d ordered. Falling asleep in Hyunjin’s arms and waking up wrapped around him became habitual. 

He couldn’t help but think of it as a taste of their future together, because at that point, he was certain there would be one. Every morning when he set sight on his boyfriend, Felix’s heart would do a strange jump, an intense fondness for Hyunjin gripping him along with an intense fear of losing him. It was… 

Dare he say it?

 _Love_. 

Before he could build the courage to ask Hyunjin whether his feelings were reciprocated, Hyunjin had stunned him by kissing him goodnight and murmuring the three words Felix had been yearning to say and hear. 

“I love you.”

Felix was sure that nothing could bring him down from the high that came along with hearing those words. Even the start of their final semester of their first year of college could not steal his joy.

And when the spruce greens had begun to fade into yellow, only to be replaced by vibrant golds and oranges and reds, he knew that autumn had arrived. The golden leaves and scarlet maple-hands were vivid like a painting with its oils yet to dry. The branches fought to hold on to them but eventually let them go. They danced with the wind, falling to the ground like a shower of blazing confetti. 

As the students trudged along to their lectures, the aroma of pumpkin pie drifted beneath their nostrils and each crunch of their footsteps released a burst of an earthy fragrance from the golden quilt now covering the soil.

It was an often overlooked season, a season considered by many as a bridge between the fieriness of summer and iciness of winter. But to Felix, autumn had its own beauty, its own meaning, its own purpose. 

It was the season of change, warning them of the incoming blizzard.

The bite of the wind reminded them to scour the malls for half-priced coats and stock up on woolen necessities. Cupboards began to fill up with tins of hot chocolate. The fans that constantly spun in the warmer months were pushed out of sight, forgotten until needed again.

With no common classes for their final semester, and between tests and assignments and dreaded group projects, Felix and Hyunjin found themselves struggling to create time for each other. Felix soon realized that the two weeks they’d spent together during their summer break had been spent inside a bubble, a fantasy, one untouched by the responsibilities and pressures that were heaped onto them by the real world. 

They could sneak a kiss in here and there, and goodnight calls made sure that each never forgot the other’s voice. When time allowed it, neither of them skimped on the opportunity to test whether the fire that had carried them all the way from spring through summer still existed. 

And _oh how it burned_ when they were together.

While it was easy to get sucked into the belief that the world was conspiring against them, Felix chose to focus on the brighter side, that the moments they did get to spend together were more precious, that not a second of their time together was wasted. 

But even the sun had days where it hid behind clouds. And Felix had days where the constant pull that tugged them into opposite directions became too much to bear. It was then that Felix began to question how they would survive the winter break. 

There would be no excuses to remain with each other. They would be pulled to different parts of the country by their families – their first real test, their first real separation. 

And it was an inevitable separation, but Felix held on to the faith that it would be a temporary one. 

They parted with teary eyes, kisses and promises to call whenever possible. Felix watched Hyunjin depart with the picture of his smile imprinted in his heart. 

Winter came with a vengeance, a primal force eager to steal away the joy that people had collected throughout the year. Felix, who had always looked forward to a ‘White Christmas’ had begun to see it for what it was – a cliché invented to distract from the harshness of the bitter season. 

Despite his family’s cheery smiles and bellowing laughter, Christmas carols on full blast and the warm smell of chocolate chip cookies, Felix could simply not find the joy that seemed to be inherent in everyone else. He’d grown to hate how the air had a permanent damp fragrance to it. He hated how the snow fell like projectiles ruining all his favorite places, the once-vibrant colors all muted by the blanket of white. 

Without Hyunjin, Felix felt like one of the frost covered trees, bare and shivering, desperate for warmth. Hyunjin’s calls had been scarce, and even though Felix knew he was being paranoid about it, he couldn’t help the bitter thoughts that crept into his mind as quietly as the frost forming over his window.

_What if his feelings went away?_

_What if he met someone new?_

_What if Felix was forgotten?_

Some days, he preferred staying beneath the duvet, fingers wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate as he pondered the answers to these questions.

On other days, winter wrapped its hand around Felix’s leading him out into the bitter cold. 

And on one such day, he walked by himself, eyes downcast, breath leaving his mouth as vapor. The sun struggled behind murky clouds, a few rays managing to escape through. Felix’s footfalls were muffled by cushions of snow beneath his feet. Eventually, he slowed to a walk, his breath faint against the numbing air. 

Several other joggers had also been forced to stop, all of them trudging through the thick blankets of snow. He tilted his head up towards the sky to see a sprinkle of sculpted white flakes floating downward. They reminded him of Sunday afternoons with Hyunjin, feeding each other pastries as they watched the sunset, sprinkles of icing sugar falling like snow between them. 

The memory took him by surprise, and even in the biting cold, he felt himself warm from the inside out. He wondered how such a warm memory could come to life in such a brutal winter.

Felix stood in place, brown eyes taking in the winter wonderland for the first time, his lips involuntarily drawn into a soft smile. 

Snow hugged the grey animal statuettes that decorated the park, turning them into unrecognizable white shapes, like clouds hovering above the ground. From the branches of snow-covered trees, long icicles hung, their crystalline structures catching the light and glistening like stars fallen from the heavens.

Just a few feet away, children screeched in laughter as they skated across the frozen pond. As if someone had waved a magic wand, the layer of ice on the surface sparkled beneath the sunlight.

And for the first time during that bleak that winter, Felix saw not the hardened blanket of ice, but what lay _beneath_ the surface – the gently moving water, patiently waiting for the onset of spring.

Winter had not taken life away; it had granted it a reprieve. Beneath the harshness of ice and snow, life went on.

_Because life always goes on._

If Hyunjin’s feelings for Felix went away, _his life would still go on_.

If Hyunjin found someone new, _his life would still go on._

If Hyunjin had forgotten Felix, _his life would still go on._

Winter would always give way to spring. And when spring arrived, so would love, in full bloom.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading 💗  
> Twitter/IG/CuriousCat: flora_stays


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